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Abolish years of suffering with MCU™ therapy.

For all the wrong reasons, 64-year-old Merritt Island native Patrice Ozmore still has vivid memories of the spring vacation trip she made with her family to Cocoa Beach during her freshman year in high school.

Patrice Ozmore

“I remember it because we were in a terrible car accident,” Patrice recalls. “We were driving somewhere one night when we suddenly got rear-ended. The force of the crash threw me forward, out of the passenger seat, and I went face-first into the windshield.

“I wound up suffering several facial lacerations, and when we went to the hospital, that was what the doctors were most concerned with. Even though my whole body was sore, they didn’t really check me for whiplash or anything like that.”

Beginning not long after the accident occurred and continuing on into adulthood, Patrice experienced an ever-increasing degree of neck pain, back pain and tingling in her arms. For years, however, she blamed those issues on stress, never associating them with the car accident.

The same held true not only for the steady deterioration of her posture, which resulted in a rounding forward of her shoulders that she chalked up to old age, but also a neck problem that she didn’t take full notice of until one day about a year ago while she was out running an errand.

“I was driving one day and realized that when I went to change lanes, instead of just turning my head to look at the other lane, I was turning my entire body,” Patrice explains. “And I was turning my entire body because I couldn’t turn my neck.

“I had lost the range of motion in my neck, so to compensate for that, I was turning my whole body. Because of that, and the fact that I was starting to worry about my posture and that I didn’t want to be this hunched-over old lady, I decided to get checked out.”

Patrice made that decision while sitting in the waiting room at Active Health Center, where Marc A. Weinberg, DC, leads a team of physicians who use a variety of advanced techniques and technologies to determine the cause of each patient’s symptoms and treat them in a quick, effective manner.

“I was there because I had taken a friend of mine for an appointment. She and a lot of my other friends in the neighborhood who had been there before had already told me about Active Health Center, and they all swear by it,” Patrice explains.

History Lesson

“When Patrice first came in, she said, I don’t have a lot of pain, but I can’t move my neck very far or feel my hands anymore,” explains Colin Behrue, DC, of Active Health Center. “So, we started to dig into her history a bit. That’s when we learned about the accident.

For Patrice, MCU therapy erased more than 50 years of degeneration and discomfort.

“We also learned that she had never had a full spinal assessment of her neck, back and lower back; that she had become more and more limited in terms of daily function and that she was often in so much pain that she was relying on medication to sleep at night.”

The knowledge Dr. Behrue accrued from his interview prompted him to do a thorough examination of Patrice. He took x-rays as part of a complete spinal assessment and did some neurological testing. The results shocked Patrice.

“The x-rays showed that there were only two vertebrae supporting my entire neck and that there had been some trauma that had caused the discs in my neck to wear down,” she says. “We determined that the car accident was where this all started.

“Dr. Behrue said the condition of my neck was in the top five percent of the worst he’d ever seen. The trauma was causing a pinching of the nerves, which was the root of all the pain and numbness. The good news was that he had an MCU machine that could fix all that.”

An MCU machine, or Multi-Cervical Unit, is a nonsurgical device that isolates and strengthens the muscles around the neck. It also provides a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s physical progress as the patient receives the therapy.

Providing what Dr. Weinberg calls evidence-based medicine, the MCU records 16 different ranges of muscle movement for strength to determine the specific areas of the neck where there are strengths, weaknesses, imbalances or a loss of range of motion.

“To ensure someone is a good candidate, patients go through a series of doctor-
supervised isometric strength tests,” Dr. Weinberg explains. “Once the source of weakness and/or imbalance is found, the patient is prescribed their own specific treatment regimen on the MCU to fix the problem. There is no guesswork.”

The MCU is considered the most complete and efficient system for assessment and rehabilitation of the neck, and Patrice was what Dr. Weinberg and Dr. Behrue consider a perfect candidate for MCU therapy. However, because the condition of her neck and spine was so severe, they needed to make some traditional adjustments before beginning the MCU therapy.

“Patrice had an issue with everything spinal,” Dr. Behrue says. “She had scoliosis, meaning curvature of the spine. She had degenerative disc disease. She had bone spurs and joint issues. It was a matter of all of the above with her.

“The only way to get someone who has all of those issues to feel better is to teach or re-train the muscles, tendons and ligaments – all that soft tissue – to strengthen and support those structures again. That’s what the MCU machine does.

“But not everyone who comes in is automatically a candidate for MCU therapy, and that was the case with Patrice, because you never want to start to train the muscles to support the neck properly when you’re not in proper alignment.

“So, we first had to undo something like fifty years of degeneration. Then, once we got her range of motion as close to normal as possible, we began retraining the body in its proper alignment. So we knew it was going to be a process with Patrice.

“However, once we did get her on the MCU machine, we were able to do some very specific testing because of the machine’s capabilities. From that testing, we were able to tailor treatments for her that were specifically designed to correct her condition.”

A single MCU session lasts between 20 and 30 minutes, with patients typically going through three sessions a week for nine weeks. During those nine weeks, patients are re-tested at least three times to determine the effectiveness of the treatments.

“We re-test the patient every three weeks, or nine visits, and then we compare the results of those tests with the results we received from our original examination of the patient,” Dr. Behrue explains.

“That shows us how well the patient is progressing, and based on the findings, we make clinical changes. The change could be different exercises, different angles or different weights that help the patient continue to improve and build strength.”

After nine weeks of therapy, patients are typically given a maintenance program that includes exercises they do at home to maintain their strength. Patrice was among those who graduated to a home exercise program following the nine-week program.

“When I started the MCU therapy, I was in what Dr. Behrue described as the bottom five percent in terms of range of motion with my neck,” Patrice reveals. “After nine weeks, he said I was in the top ten percent, and now I pretty much have full range of motion.

“I’m not using my entire upper body to turn my head anymore, my posture is better and I’m not getting those knots in my back or that tingling in my arms and hands anymore. I feel like a totally different person now.”

The Missing Link

Angela Tompkins is a well-known member of the health and wellness community. A former massage therapist and yoga teacher, she now travels the globe as a personal trainer and health coach for Core Inspired Living, a lifestyle company she began about ten years ago.

As you might expect, she’s a near perfect picture of health. That has not always been the case.

For years, the lack of normal curvature in her cervical vertebrae, which are the seven neck bones below the skull that support the cervical spine, caused Angela to suffer from consistent, nagging neck stiffness. It also left her highly susceptible to a seriously debilitating neck injury.

Angela knew that because of her condition, her profession, and her active lifestyle, she was living rather precariously. It came as no surprise then that her situation deteriorated greatly after she was involved in a car accident in January 2014.

“I was in the backseat of a friend’s car when it happened,” Angela says of the accident. “We got rear-ended and pushed into a truck that was in front of us, so there were two collisions. It wasn’t a horrific or truly terrible accident, but it was enough to herniate the discs in my neck.

“If I had a normal, healthy spine, I probably would have been fine. But with the chronic neck issues I had, the first six months or so after the crash were just awful. It was bad. Real bad. The pain was so great, I was genuinely concerned about my quality of life.”

Angela first sought help for her pain from a chiropractor, who did a good job, she says, of relieving the pain. However, when Angela’s insurance coverage expired and she was unable to continue care with the chiropractor, the pain returned. It was then that she acted on the advice of a friend who suggested she see the doctors at Active Health Center.

A More Permanent Fix

“I’ve known about Active Health Center for a long time,” Angela explains. “I’ve referred friends and previous clients to them, so I knew they did good work and trusted them. Then a friend of mine reminded me that they had an MCU machine and that it might be just what I needed.”

Angela chose Active Health Center for her treatment in part because she knew she could receive MCU therapy there but also because she knows there is specific research that shows the MCU to be the absolute best way to strengthen the neck.

According to Active Health Center, studies reveal that after receiving MCU therapy, patient pain levels decrease on average by 66 percent while strength levels increase by more than 70 percent, with more than 90 percent of patients making a full recovery.

“It’s the part that gets left out of traditional neck pain care, yet all the research shows it’s a required piece for resolving neck pain,” Dr. Behrue says of MCU therapy. “When it comes to neck pain and weakness, the MCU is the missing link.

“Whether a patient has arthritis, a herniated disc or nerve related symptoms, if they can strengthen the muscles around those weak areas, they can experience positive, long-lasting results.”

Much like Patrice, the damage to Angela’s neck was so great that before she could begin the therapy, she first had to go through a couple of weeks of gentle chiropractic care to prepare her for MCU therapy.

Strong Support System

“Once we quieted Angela’s neck down a little, we had her tested and diagnosed in the MCU,” notes Dr. Weinberg. “What we learned from our initial test was that she had a very, very weak neck. That’s what was contributing to all her pain. If someone has a herniated disc but no muscle to support it, they’re going to be in a lot of pain.

Angela Tompkins

“What the MCU does is build up normal muscle around the herniated disc, giving the herniated disc a chance to heal. The reason why herniated discs don’t heal is because most people who have herniated discs are also suffering from weakness
in their neck.

“When that weakness exists, there’s no rest for the disc, so every day, their neck pain just gets worse and worse and worse. What we’re able to do with the MCU is give them the ability to strengthen their neck, which takes the pressure off the discs and allows them to heal.”

Angela, who spent more than two years trying to correct her neck issues through general chiropractic methods, says she has never felt as good as she has since she completed the MCU therapy, which she calls “a life changer.”

“I’m a very active person,” she notes. “I spent the summer last year mountain biking and road biking in Colorado. I recently flew to Indonesia and sat in coach the whole way there and back, and I was fine. No issues with my neck at all.

“I can promise you that before I went to Active Health Center and had MCU therapy, there was no way I could fly for even three hours without neck pain. The difference MCU therapy has made in my life is substantial.

“I can’t thank the doctors at Active Health Center enough for all that they’ve done. They are absolutely incredible. If you’re having any kind of neck pain, you really need to go see them.
They’ll get you right.”

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Roy Cummings is a native of Chicago, Illinois who grew up in the suburb of Lombard. He and his family later moved to Lakeland, Florida, where Roy attended high school at Kathleen High. He graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications in 1983 and immediately went to work for the Tampa Tribune. After five years working in a Polk County bureau covering everything from high school sports to college football to the Orlando Magic of the NBA, Roy moved back to Tampa and became the Tribune's first beat writer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, covering the team from its inception through the first eight years on the ice. He was then moved to the Buccaneers beat, where he stayed until the paper was folded in May, 2016. A two-time Florida Sports Writer of the Year, Roy has extensive experience covering all Tampa professional sports teams, including the Tampa Bay Rays.

If you have aches and pains from a motor vehicle accident, an old injury or a slip and fall, or are just feeling pain from the trials of daily life, Dr. Marc Weinberg and Dr. Colin Behrue at Active Health Center at Weinberg Chiro... Read More

Marc A. Weinberg, DC, completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida and went on to graduate cum laude from Life Chiropractic College in Marietta, GA. He is approved by the National University of Health Sciences to perfor... Read More

Colin O. Behrue, DC, completed his undergraduate studies in molecular/microbiology at the University of Central Florida and went on to receive his Doctorate of Chiropractic, cum laude, from Palmer Chiropractic College Florida in Port Orange. He... Read More

Bryan T. Hunte, DC, earned his undergraduate degree in fitness and cardiac rehab/exercises science and biology from Ithaca College. He received his doctorate in chiropractic from National University of Health Sciences. He is currently work... Read More

Forrest Harvey, DC, completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Pennsylvania’s Westminster College before earning his Doctorate of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Port Orange, Florida.
He treats patients of all ... Read More

Adam Holleman, DPT, earned his undergraduate degree in exercise science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, VA. He received his doctorate in physical therapy from Winston-Salem State University. He performed research in biomechan... Read More